(1) Pursuant to s. 14(b), Art. V of the State Constitution, selected salaries, costs, and expenses of the state courts system and court-related functions shall be funded from a portion of the revenues derived from statutory fines, fees, service charges, and court costs collected by the clerks of the court and from adequate and appropriate supplemental funding from state revenues as appropriated by the Legislature.
(2) As used in this section, the term:
(a) “Cumulative excess” means revenues derived from fines, fees, service charges, and court costs collected by the clerks of the court which are greater than the original revenue projection.
(b) “Original revenue projection” means the official estimate, as determined by the Revenue Estimating Conference, of revenues from fines, fees, service charges, and court costs available for court-related functions for the county fiscal year covered by the projection.
(3) The portion of all fines, fees, service charges, and costs collected by the clerks of the court for the previous month which is in excess of one-twelfth of the clerks’ total budget for the performance of court-related functions must be remitted to the Department of Revenue for deposit into the Clerks of the Court Trust Fund. Such collections do not include funding received for the operation of the Title IV-D child support collections and disbursement program. The clerk of the court shall remit the revenues collected during the previous month due to the state on or before the 10th day of each month.
(4)(a) Each year, no later than January 25, for the previous county fiscal year, the clerks of court, in consultation with the Florida Clerks of Court Operations Corporation, shall remit to the Department of Revenue for deposit in the Clerks of the Court Trust Fund the cumulative excess of all fines, fees, service charges, and court costs retained by the clerks of the court, plus any funds received by the clerks of the court from the Clerks of the Court Trust Fund under s. 28.36(4), which exceed the amount needed to meet their authorized budget amounts established under s. 28.35.
(b) No later than February 1, 2022, and each February 1 thereafter, the Department of Revenue shall transfer 50 percent of the cumulative excess of the original revenue projection from the Clerks of the Court Trust Fund to the General Revenue Fund. The remaining 50 percent in the Clerks of the Court Trust Fund may be used in the development of the total combined budgets of the clerks of the court as provided in s. 28.35(2)(f)6. However, a minimum of 10 percent of the clerk-retained portion of the cumulative excess amount must be held in reserve until such funds reach an amount equal to at least 16 percent of the total budget authority from the current county fiscal year, as provided in s. 28.36(3)(a).
(5) The Department of Revenue shall collect any funds that the Florida Clerks of Court Operations Corporation determines upon investigation were due but not remitted to the Department of Revenue. The corporation shall notify the clerk of the court and the Department of Revenue of the amount due to the Department of Revenue. The clerk of the court shall remit the amount due no later than the 10th day of the month following the month in which notice is provided by the corporation to the clerk of the court.
(6) Ten percent of all court-related fines collected by the clerk, except for penalties or fines distributed to counties or municipalities under s. 316.0083(1)(b)3. or s. 318.18(15)(a), must be deposited into the fine and forfeiture fund to be used exclusively for clerk court-related functions, as provided in s. 28.35(3)(a).
History.—s. 38, ch. 2003-402; s. 25, ch. 2004-265; s. 12, ch. 2005-236; s. 5, ch. 2009-204; s. 5, ch. 2012-100; s. 8, ch. 2013-44; s. 5, ch. 2017-126; s. 4, ch. 2019-58; s. 7, ch. 2021-116.